Tablet-dispensing machine.



PATENTED NOV. 10, 1903.

W. G. BUEHNEQ, TABLET DISPENSING MACHINE.

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. ber of perforations Patented November 10, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. BUEHNE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

TABLET-DISPENSING MACHlNE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 743,686, dated November 10, 1903- Applieation filed February 11, 1908. Serial No. 142,980.

To all whom it may cortcern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. BUEIIN E,-a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tablet- Dispensing Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings,.

forming a part hereof.

My invention has relation to improvements in tablet counting and feeding it consists in the novel arrangement and combination of parts more fully set forth in the specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine. Fig. 2 is a top plan thereof. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section on line L 4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is an end elevation thereof, and Fig. 6 is an enlarged sectional detail showing the course of the tab lets or pills.

The object of my invention is to construct a machine designed for feeding tablets, pills, capsules, lozenges, and the like to boxes or packages in which the same are to be sold or placed on the market, said machine at the same time serving to deliver a predetermined number of such tablets into such box without the necessity of counting the same, it being understood that in this respect the machine 7 does its own counting.

In detail the machine maybe described as follows: Referring to the drawings, 1 represents a bed-plate surmounted by atrack-bar 2,whose sides are provided with extension walls or wings 2,forming between them a track or way for the reciprocating perforated plate 3, the said plate passing through a central head or enlargement 4, formed on the bar 2. Surmounting the track-bar 2 and carried by a standard 5, secured to the bed-plate, is a forwardly-inclined pan 6, into which the tablets or pills P are placed, a tube 7 leading from the forward end of the pan through the head 4 and communicating directly with the upper surface of the perforated plate 3. The numh in the plate 3 in the present case is twenty-four, that being the number of tablets intended to be delivered to the box B, in which they are sold. On

.either side of a central division-wall D, condevices; and- (No model.)

necting the bar2 with the bed-plate, the bar is provided with a delivery-opening O,through which the tablets drop into the box B.

The operation of the device is as follows: In their descent from the pan 6 through the tube 7- the tablets P encounter the plate 3. As this is reciprocated in one direction (see full arrow in Fig. 1) the tablets fall into the openings h of the plate and are carried along the track-bar until they come over the opening 0, when they drop through the same and are caught by the box B, Figs. 1 and 6. As the plate is reciprocated in the opposite direction the tablets are carried over the opening 0 on the opposite side of the division-wall D and deposited in the box B on that side. (See dotted position of parts, Fig. 1.) With each reciprocation of the plate 3 the latter is shoved under the tube 7 until all the openings hhave passed the discharge end of the same, the plate being limited in its reciprocations by the knobs 8 coming in contact with the head i. It will thus be seen that the device not only fills the box 13, but at the same time insures the dispensing of a number of tablets which corresponds to the number of openings h formed in the plate 3. The device therefore is self-counting.

To insure the proper feeding of the tablets from the pan into the tube 7, I provide the former with ashaker or agitator 9, composed of a vertically-disposed plate or sheet pivotally secured to the rear wall of the pan, the forward end of the sheet being provided with a wing 10, passing through an elongated slot 11, formed in the front wall of the pan, the projecting edge of the wing being provided with a disk 12, by which the agitator can be oscillated, Fig. 2, and the feeding of the tablets into the tube 7 insured.

'I do not, of course, wish to be limited to the number of counting-holes h, as these may be varied at pleasure. Neither do I wish to be limited to the precise details here shown, as these may in a measure be departed from without in any wise affecting the nature or spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, claim is- 1. In a tablet-dispensing device,

what I a pan for holding the tablets, a feed-tube leading from the bottom of the pan, an agitator pivoted to below the discharge pan, an elongated slot formed in the front Wall of the pan, a wing at the forward end ofthe plate passing through the slot, and a feed-tube leading from the bottom of the pan, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM G. BUEHNE.

Witnesses:

EMIL STAREK, G. L. BELFRY. 

